Hobbs, Will. Downriver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1991 204 pages. (Survival/Adventure)Jessie’s dad has decided to send Jessie to “juvenile delinquent camp,” she calls it. Jessie used to do so well in school and is now skipping classes in her sophomore year in high school in the first month of school. Also, she has been in two car accidents being below the age of driving and hangs out with guys a few years older than her. When in Hoods in the Woods, or Discovery Unlimited, they travel all around for 9 months, not just hiking, but anything you could imagine. No one likes the leader, Al, because they all have to go rafting on the flat, slow river, San Juan River, just so Al could get a permit. Al steps out of the van to make sure everything is set, and everyone in the van decides to drive away and leave him. They end up going to the Grand Canyon because they had all the gear for rafting on a river, and they thought that people looking for them wouldn’t think to check there. All seven kids go through many tough situations where they have to stand for what they think is right, not just what Troy, the “leader,” says. Al finds them and tries to set them up because they were in trouble, but they always find a way to get away from him.
I selected this book because it looked like a book of adventure. I really enjoyed the story, and I thought it was well plotted out. Nothing happened too fast, but nothing happened to slow. There was always sometime in the book where I could think about what had already happened and. I could never tell what was going to come next, and I was just as surprised as the characters when something big happened. When I don’t have a book to read in free time, I know I can count on Will Hobbs’s books to keep me fascinated!
Richie Rich
